Gaming
by Backroads
Summary: Monique gets bored during the prom and somehow winds up at Felix's place.


What self-respecting girl in her right mind would ever attend a dance, especially a dance no less than prom, stag? One just clamoring to be given the Desperate-Loser-Thinking-She's-Promoting-Feminism-But-Is-Only-Looking-Like-a-Loser award? Here she was, pretty princess in cream silk, lost in the music and lights of prom, utterly and ridiculously dateless. Whose idea had that been? Where had she been, during all of Kim's rants about the food chain and finding a date and not wanting to go with Ron and all the rest of that? She had been playing the best friend, egging Kim on for her own sick pleasure, dropping subtle advice Kim was not picking up on. Like it was some big game. The kind of game you play in history class that is supposed to help you review for the big test but you aren't paying attention because it's a game.

Monique pulled another chip from the snack table and popped it into her mouth. Wow. This looked even better. Not only dateless, but pigging out with a naked mole rat. It had been so okay when the prom had begun, when Kim was there, and the fast music was going, and you really didn't need a slow dance partner. It was just prom, she had thought. Just for fun. Just part of the game of high school. The necessity of a date had never even crossed her mind.

There was Brick, of course. Brick Flagg. He was cute, she supposed. Okay, very cute. Big and tough and cavemanly—didn't every girl secretly want a caveman? He even had the caveman mentality. And she did kind of like him….

Until approximately twenty minutes ago, twenty minutes after the ten minutes of what it would be like to be Brick's girl. The pleasure of hanging out with someone that had the IQ of, well, a brick, only lasted seven minutes. The last three minutes were devoted to finding something else besides the boy's entertainment value.

Eh, maybe Brick wasn't so bad. He could be trained. He was fun. He liked sports, and sports were always good. But if the guy couldn't laugh at a single one of her cynical little witticisms, well, could she put up with that? Having to explain everything to him?

'Sides, he was still trying to figure out if he were going after her or if he were still with Bonnie.

And no one else seemed to be around during slow songs; either had a partner, had fled, or had joined the less-than-desirable wallflower crowd, and Monique had not yet stooped to that level. Kim and Ron were _still _out there, hopefully breathing through the nose—otherwise, they would have passed out long ago. Hopefully one of them had chap stick on hand. What had been fan girl squeal-worthy cute half an hour ago was now just nauseating. Why did couples always have to do that?

Apparently Rufus agreed. He had preoccupied himself with snacks—while looking in the opposite direction.

This was so pathetic. Maybe she should just leave. The sudden and bitter thought echoed in her mind ever more promising.

"You up for that, Rufus?" she asked the naked mole rat, picking him out of the bowl of chips. "Us checking out of here?"

The little guy nodded, whiskery face covered in crumbs.

"Well, I doubt Ron will notice for awhile if I kidnap his pet," she muttered, sticking Rufus into her purse and heading out the door.

The night was cool, refreshing against the stifling heat of the gymnasium. But just as empty in the man department. She couldn't go home just yet… her mom would probably want to have some bonding talk over the whole deal.

Well, walks were always nice. She could just wander around the neighborhood for a while. In a formal gown. Oh well. What other choice did she have?

Ten minutes of solitary walk were not the best therapy for post-prom nastiness. She plopped against a corner tree, kicking off her shoes. Ten minutes of solitary walk in heels was not smart. Rufus crawled from her purse and hopped onto her knee, probably some attempt of weird naked mole rat comforting. Eh, it was okay.

"I have an odd life, Rufus," she said to him. The stars were out. Perfect prom night. As if she cared. Maybe she should make a wish. But no. Wishes were for utter romantics, wanting a specific guy. Or depressed people, heartbroken. She wasn't that, at least not right now. She was just… bored. The great plague of boredom had descended upon her.

And now what was there to do when she was bored? She looked up and down the street, considering just bothering the next person to walk along, past the houses…

She recognized one of the houses. Oh. She had wandered onto this street. Felix's house. That one friend of Ron's. The video game one with the funky chair.

She hadn't seen him at the prom. Did that mean he was home?

Good grief, she was actually getting up. Swinging Rufus onto her shoulder, grabbing her purse, refusing to put her shoes back on, the whole nine yards. Would it be weird to just go bother him?

She was actually walking up the street.

And knocking on the door.

She must be really bored to be this impudent.

"Come in!" a guy's voice called from somewhere inside. Felix, if she recognized him correctly.

A little unsure, she opened the door a crack. There was an average living room, with a tv, and Felix playing video games.

He gazed at her curiously, at whatever he could see of her, anyway. "Monique?"

She opened the door fully. "Hey, Felix. I like to barge into people's houses, on occasion."

His reply was pure confusion. "Okay… nice dress. Were you at the prom?"

"Was."

"Oh." More confusion. "But you're not there anymore."

She shrugged. "I got bored. You can only watch people kiss for so long."

He nodded, still confused. "Well, come on in. And shut the door and pull up a seat. My mom isn't home so… it gets kind of lonely around here."

She plopped onto the floor next to him, Rufus hopping to Felix's lap. "Loneliness. I've been feeling that tonight."

Felix allowed himself a moment of rejoicing as a zombie toasted it on the screen. "So, who was kissing?"

Monique made a face. "Kim and Ron."

Felix did a double take. "No way."

"Yes way," she sighed. "I saw the whole thing."

Felix nodded, looking rather shocked. "Wow. So Kim and Ron."

"Yeah."

For a long time they were both silent, staring at the zombies on the screen.

"Cool game," Monique said.

"Yeah. This is the best volume. Though Ron disagrees."

"Yeah." Brilliant response. "So, Felix, you like video games?"

He shrugged. "They're okay. Yeah, I really do like them. Not much else you can do when you're in my position." He nodded at the wheel chair.

Monique shrugged. He was probably right. He'd know. "My brothers taught me how to play some of them. Maybe we should get together and play sometime." Wow. She really was bored. But, hey, video games could be okay.

He looked at her, smiling faintly. "We could do that now, if you want. This has a multi-player battle mode."

"Battles are fun," she volunteered. "Let's do that."

And so the game was reset, and battle mode begun. Felix kicked Monique's zombie down in under five seconds.

"At least you weren't just pressing buttons," he said.

"Sometimes just pressing buttons is the best strategy," she replied. "Next round."

Little more survival this time. "You know," she continued. "It would help if I knew what buttons did what."

"I thought you weren't just pressing buttons."

"Boy, don't even pretend to know my strategy." This was actually getting kind of fun.

The battles continued, spraying fake zombie ooze all over the screen. Rufus played the perfect little cheerleader.

This was so better than any prom.

"We should do this more often," Felix said, as he uppercutted her zombie. "If you want to."

"I wouldn't mind. Especially since Kim and Ron will apparently be spending a lot of time together."

"I still can't believe they were kissing like that."

"Yeah." At least the image was leaving Monique's mind.

Though she wondered if Ron would ever know Rufus was missing. But hey, the naked mole rat gave great gaming advice.

_**The End!**_


End file.
